Re: Car journalism
As others have hinted, I am one. Though it still feels odd to say that as I certainly don't have as high a profile as plenty of the top car journos at the moment, nor (quite) the jet-setting lifestyle. And certainly not the salary.
I'm currently freelance, which if you're not clued up on the term means I've no set employer and I do different work for different people.
Good stuff:
It's a great job and one I intend to continue doing for a long time. First and foremost, I love cars and I love writing. That I spend all day
writing about
cars is therefore a good thing. That may still mean sitting on my butt all day trying to find stories on the internet or trying to remove the "we're so great!" factor from press releases, but it still means writing about cars all day.
When I'm not sitting on my butt writing up press releases, I might even be out doing something more interesting. I go to the odd motor show these days which is fun, and the odd car launch which is even more fun, and occasionally a friendly car manufacturer leaves a fully-fueled, newly-washed car on my doorstep to drive, and then takes it away again a week later. If I time it right I can go months without using my own car or indeed spending my own money on fuel.
It's also an exciting and engaging working environment, even if I spend much of it entirely on my own. Most current car journalists reside on twitter so it's possible to spend much of the time you aren't writing articles speaking to others of your ilk while they're writing articles, and then of course you get to meet them at every launch/motor show/social do.
Not so good stuff:
If you consider $50-60k to not really be a sufficient wage, then I've bad news: For a long time, unless you're very lucky, you won't earn anywhere near that as a car journalist. That's because the jobs that pay that sort of cash are incredibly infrequent and hard to get to, whereas the jobs that pay a pittance (or nothing at all) are hugely common.
I've been trying to think of the perfect analogy to describe it, and I've come up with the logarithmic graph that describes the intensity and frequency of earthquakes.
There are earthquakes happening all the time. Ones that measure less than
2.0 on the Richter scale are literally ongoing, you just don't feel them. This is blogging in your own time.
Slightly further up, say at
4.0-4.9, there are proportionally fewer quakes, but still a lot - 13,000 a year. Less frequent, but more powerful (better paid). This is paid blogging, which is really the stage I'm at. The more earthquakes (jobs) you can get, the better.
Further up? Maybe around
high 6s on the Richter scale. Only just over 100 earthquakes a year. Jobs are getting thin on the ground. Now, you're either lead writer for a decently-sized internet site (MSN cars, perhaps), or on the bottom rung of magazine journalism. Pay is enough to sustain you, and you still get to do all the car stuff, but you won't be really buying many of the products you're reviewing.
7-7.9. Major earthquakes. 15 per year. Journalism jobs in the top magazines. Well paid, very infrequently available.
8-8.9. Serious earthquakes. 1 per year. Editor positions. Even better paid, but require years of experience at all the other points on the earthquake graph.
9-9.9. Devastating earthquakes. 1 every ten years.
You are Chris Harris. You get to write brilliant features and do videos for the best of the best, and get paid pretty handsomely for the privilege. You can charge big bucks as a freelancer for every piece you write.
10.0. As yet unrecorded levels of destruction. So infrequent as to effectively never happen.
You are Jeremy Clarkson. You've been in the business for decades and chosen the perfect career path. Paid millions. Reach a wider audience than Christianity.
How to be a car journo:
I'll make this very clear: You need to enjoy writing more than you enjoy cars, because you spend a lot more time writing than you do driving.
Luckily, I love writing. When I'm not being paid for it I'm writing on my own personal blog, when I'm not doing that I'm on twitter, or GTP, or anywhere else, probably writing about cars. Every so often I'll drive something, and then I'll start writing about it again.
Write, write, write, write and write some more.
The good thing about this is that you can get plenty of practice in
way before you ever get a job or qualification. The better thing is that you can slot this practice into any other aspect of your life, so if you work behind the counter at McDonalds you can still come home and write about cars on a blog.
Next: Join twitter.
Follow me, and then follow everyone I follow. Most of the people I follow on Twitter are either other journalists, industry people, dealerships, job sites, salespeople, designers, press offices, TV personalities, manufacturers or anyone else involved in the industry. Get chatting to them you'll soon find yourself drawing from a wide pool of experience.
Next: Go to every car blog you can find and look for every one that says "we're looking for writers!". You'd be surprised how many are pretty much constantly hiring. The money isn't great (4-4.9 on the Richter scale, remember - lots of jobs, not a lot of pay) but it's a foot in the door. They may ask for proof you can write, and
hey presto! You can link them to the blog you've been writing in for months.
Next: Do that for every website you can find. More sites = more money.
Next: You're at my stage. Chugging along writing for websites, having fun, not making a lot of money, and looking for a permanent magazine job I can earn a living from.
Next: I dunno. Not got there yet!
TL;DR - Write lots, apply for everything, occasionally drive cars.
I've gone on launches before with little more money than a few coins in my pocket, as everything is paid for...
